SOLDIER SETTLERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 24 March 1922, Page 5

SOLDIER SETTLERS.

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER

VALUATIONS TOO HIGH.

(BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) DANNEVIRKE, Marcii 23. A deputation of soldier setters in the Glengarry block was introduced to the Minister of Lands to-day by Mr. A. McNicol, M.P., when Mr. Guthrie listened to the representations made by the settlers, also on their behalf, in favour of an early revaluation of the block, jt being unanimously contended that at the present rentals and prices for produce the men had no hope of making a reasonable success of their holdings.

The Minister, in the course of a sympathetic reply, said that both he and the Land Board would give the settlers ■all the assistance in their power to help them over their difficulties. Returned soldier settlers were not the only ones affected by the slump, as all the farmers, and the country generally, were feeling the pinch, "but the outlook was now improving.

The Government, said the Minister, had not wanted to buy all the land offered for soldier settlement., but in many cases its liands had been forced by the insistent demand for land. The Glengarry settlement had been purchased at the then ruling price, and that was the first time he had heard the price was too high. He could not swallow the statement that the value would have to be reduced by 66 per cent. The Minister said he would have to stand "by the law regarding revaluation, "but he would do everything reasonable to Tielp the soldiers to make a success.